Hey guys, first time posting here just looking for some advice. I dropped out of college my senior year with a 3.6 overall GPA and I believe a 3.3 SGPA 504 MCAT. I have an exceptional amount of shadow, research, and volunteer hours and even a couple published papers. I did 2 yrs of research with Rutgers RBW ortho. I dropped out my senior year because I had my first kid and had to make money to support my family. However, it honestly always bothered me because, although I love what I do now, medicine was my passion since I can remember. Since I dropped out I started a real estate business, bought a house, and got married. My wife and I got a grasp on life and 4 years later I feel like I am ready to drop everything else and focus on myself and my dreams again. My 504 MCAT score was with maybe 2 decent weeks of studying. I plan to finish the last class I need for my undergrad in the coming fall semester. Does anyone have any advice on how to move forward? Do I even have a chance at getting in with 4 years off and being out of medicine? Anything I can do to boost my application at this point in the game? Anyone have experience with a similar situation?
26 y/o non trad needdd advice
- Thread starter jmu29
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Sure you can. I started med school at 30 and there are lots of people who started a lot later than that. Do you have all the prerequisites for medical school? You’ll need to retake the MCAT as most schools want it within 3 years. You could take some classes to boost your GPA, but otherwise you absolutely still have a chance
Agreed! As someone who's applying as a non-traditional myself, one thing I came across is for the medical schools you want to apply to, some want pre-requisites within the last 5 years vs some schools say they never expire. You might have to call the medical school directly and ask.
Got it! Thanks for the advice. Yes I definitely plan to retake the mcat and yes I was a bio major so i have all the pre-reqs completed. any recommendations on what to do from now till I apply? Do you think getting a job making less than I make now working in an urgent care or something will help. Or at this point I just need to re-take and reapply?
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You don’t need clinical employment, but clinical experience is important. That can be volunteer or you can take a paycut and do a clinical job. I worked as ophthalmic technician making $19-20 an hour and that was great experience. I also volunteered in a children’s hospital. Find something that will let you interact with healthcare in some capacity. At the end of the day you gotta pay the bills and only you know exactly what that will take.
